This invention relates to a low profile device for treatment of vascular abnormalities, such as the repair of aneurysms.
In the past, treatment of aneurysms involved an open surgical procedure which exposed the affected lumen and bypassing the aneurysm with an artificial tubular graft.
More recently stent grafts have been employed as a minimally invasive alternative to traditional graft bypass surgery. There are a number of stent graft designs that have been tried. Current designs are limited to use with patients having large vessels because of the large size of the delivery systems. Such large sizes require surgical exposure of the vascular system and in smaller patients, often females, such stent grafts are simply too large to use at all. In addition, such larger stent graft designs can be difficult to position and may cause damage to the blood vessels.